Hey all,

I wondered if some of you with your vast combined musical knowledge might be able to help me out...

I'm in the process of doing a bit of research, and quite a fundamental part of it concerns the portrayal of Jesus (i.e. christology) in the southern US states around the time of the depression and westward migration. The work centres around the depiction of Preacher Casy in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath as a 'Christlike figure'...

Anyhow, I'm looking for - or at least pointers towards - any relevant songs or sources from the period. I'm thinking of things along the lines of Guthrie's 'Jesus Christ' (i.e. the 'liberation christology' of Jesus as a working man, put to death at the hands of the cops, bankers, preachers etc. for siding with the poor and oppressed), or indeed 'I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night' (which seems to place the eponym in a 'Christlike' role similar to that of Steinbeck's Casy).

I don't think I've explained this too well at all, have I? :-)

Thanks ev'rybody!
Stephen